Hooked on Heroin: Public "Blissfully Unaware" of Illegal Drug Trade in Pogonip
May 21, 2010
In Santa Cruz, the tourist industry has a dark underbelly: black-tar heroin. People come to Santa Cruz from miles away to buy $10 hits of the highly addictive opiate, especially to Pogonip, a large city-owned park.
Local residents are among the users who hike into the woods to buy the drug. While heroin's popularity has waned in much of the rest of the state, heroin represents about 20% of the narcotics cases handled by the county's narcotics task force. More heroin addicts seek treatment in the county than any other type of drug user. Some blame the heroin problem on a lax attitude toward drugs in Santa Cruz, or the area's identity as a free-spirited piece of paradise where anything goes. Others say it is simply business: supply and demand. The heroin problem has gotten so bad that, earlier this month, Santa Cruz police teamed with DEA to target drug dealing and the gangs that sell heroin in the area. Heroin's pervasiveness in the community has also generated action from concerned residents, such as the group Take Back Santa Cruz, whose members have done cleanups at drug-infested locations.
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Source
Santa Cruz Sentinel